buenas noches from cuzco

church next to cathedral

hello from this side of the ecuator where it´s currently winter and where whowouldvethunk this hotel where im staying has an actual woodburning fireplace. sawwweeeeet! armed with tons of bits of stories and my chocolate caliente to drown the cusqueña cervezas i had, on with today´s blog. will be jumping from one story or note though, so hopefully this one makes sense somehow. it´s actually day 2 here in cuzco. its currently winter here but its really crazy weather coz you can experience 2 seasons in a day. it turns from tshirt and shorts weather to a sweater and coat one throughout the day. mustve something to do with the fact that the city is actually at least 3000km above sea level. which altitude i must admit has my system a bit messed up.

mother and llama

i have never felt as winded going up a flight of stairs (well granted its probably a hundred of them to hike up some ruins and to my hotel). but thankfully, the locally-recommended coca leaves have been really helpful in acclimating (it´s real connection with coke i have yet to establish and obviously i hope i dont test positive for anything that wouldnt be nice). nevertheless, im quite glad i didnt sign up for the 4-day inka hike on this trip coz i wouldve been messed up. next time though. i shall return for that. so far so great. i must say cuzco is a great quaint city. in my opinion, cuzco is to lima as maastricht is to amsterdam, as toledo is to madrid. very nice chill atmosphere. cobbled streets, a great sense of history, and nice lively city squares.

an inca ruin here in cuzco

ive met tons of interesting people so far. from the fellow travellers from all over the world whom ive met in the tours, to the local sellers whom ive haggled quite a bit with, to the bartender here in the hotel and the driver who brought me to the airport in lima. its amazing to realize once again that there´s tons of people in this world. of course, new york is great for realizing the world´s diversity as well but somehow its always more fun meeting people on the road. my spanish is getting better and better. i can now barter at markets quite fluently (although i think i got that skill from my mom). i can order from restaurants and ask for the check quite confidently. and my favorite, i can now carry small conversations with locals, getting some stories from them and sharing a bit of my own (granted its mostly where i come from, what i do, my family, etc...). funniest show of spanish was when i was buying a shirt for my mom. esta es muy pequena porque mi madre es gorda. (this shirt is too small. my mom is a bit fat... sorry ma, i havent yet gotten to the subtleties of the spanish language. besides, i have to get the right size right?)

the hike up to my hotel

we did the cuzco city tour today. it´s great for seeing the places that are unwalkable. we hit their main cathedral, a few ruins and a few sites. personally though, i prefer being on foot and discovering the city that way. i go on another tour tomorrow which should be good coz we hit on older part of town and the sacred valley, another important ruin. its great being able to know the bits of info on the inca civilization. amazing to realize the fact that we and the present are really just a thread in a whole piece of fabric. ok, maybe that´s just the altitude getting to my head and making me think such philosophical crap. at any rate, this trip has been great. hopefully, i get to hit africa soon to cover all the continents (not counting antartica of course). i hear a dutch friend´s parents are building a house there. hopefully i get an invite soon (hint, hint). oh ya, i met some dutchies this morning. they´re from up north holland and funny how the very beetje dutch that i know comes in handy in these rare occasions. que prima! er, was that just some form of españutch. hope all is well. all is well in this side of the ecuator. buenas noches to all. hasta pronto.